8 Ups And 4 Downs From WWE Raw (Feb 24)

2. KO Outs Crooked Ref

It’s been a while since we’ve seen the crooked referee bit, but this one was done pretty nicely.

Kevin Owens faced Randy Orton in the main event, but Seth Rollins and his disciples came down to surround the ring. The Street Profits and Viking Raiders chased everyone off except Rollins, who interjected himself into the match a few times. Orton was able to hit a draping DDT, which led to a very fast 3 count for the shock win.

Immediately, the ref went outside to check on Rollins, who tried to get Orton to hit a conchairto on KO. Owens was able to thwart Orton, but the ref interjected again, leading to Owens to grab him. KO ripped off the striped shirt to reveal a Monday Night Messiah T-shirt, identifying the ref as a Rollins disciple.

The ref then ate a Stunner and powerbomb through a table for his transgressions. This was a pretty clever way to have Orton pick up the win without hurting Owens’ momentum, and in fact helped because it furthered the Rollins storyline by showing that he could win others over to his cause who could hamper KO.